Hit the Road, Jack!: Hit Serves You Right!

Yrwin ran at max speed. Behind him, Max carried Lillian on his back and Raphael glided on the Tree branches like an elf from a Peter Jacksons' movie.

Further behind, a chimaera, a huge fire-breathing snake and a four-headed lion were closing in.

Suddenly, the chimaera spat a ball of gooey, sticky and smelling fluid, which then splashed all over the nearest tree.

Max managed to avoid it, but his clothes began to smell so bad he wanted to burn them.

- Shit, If I could stop for just a bit…

- Give up on it! We would just get more of them! - Raphael remembered his friend from the tree tops.

- Are you sure they won't come in higher numbers? If this don't work… - Max had quite the suspicion about Raphael's deductions. They just seemed to be a clear case of logic jump.

- I'm sure! - As for Raphael, if there was something he trusted way more than his brain, it would be his intuition. He had almost never ignored it, and every time he did so, he would regret it. Bitterly.

For instance, the day he decided to leave his gun at the car instead of bringing it with him, since it would be "just a little walk to stretch the legs".

Interestingly, after coming to Another World, his actions had actually opened the way for a few very interesting skills to pop up here and there - like "danger sensing" and "precognition (1)".

It seemed Shabe valued these kinds of intuitions as well, since he codded them in the game.

- Enemy monsters ahead! Five monstrous aberrations, seems like mutated hyenas! They don't seem to be variants! Turn to my right! - Yrwin alerted the group, while scanning the surroundings. A few detection skills were something very valuable to almost all players, Emperors specially - since those could very well stop and assassination attempt.

- Roger that. Avoid the spider on the big tree. It's highly poisonous! - Raphael followed suit with his own expertise - as an 'Explorer', he had a vast amount of knowledge about flora and fauna alike - so, his role was to scan the area Yrwin had deemed free of monsters while looking for natures' own traps - such as quicksand, holes filled with leaves, poisonous insects and plants, and so on.

- Hey, stop swinging so much! I can't eat like this! - At Maxes' shoulder, Lillian enjoyed the spoils of a lot of cute bunnies appearing during the night.

- Then stop it! Do you want to bite your own tongue or something?! If you want to kill yourself then do it without getting me involved!

- Buu! - As Max complained, Lillian showed her tongue to him in a typically childish act.

- Damn loli hag… act more your age, would you?!

The four proceeded through the forest, avoiding dangers as they proceeded, until the moment they found a clearance.

At the horizon, the port city Valkyrie could be seen.

- We are here! Max, engage!

- With pleasure!

As Yrwin commanded, the group turned their backs to the city and waited. Half a minute later, the four-headed lion and the chimaeras' goat head almost materialized in front of them.

Neither moved a single muscle, however, as the illusory projections passed by without harming them.

- And here… YOU ARE!

*HIIISSSSSS!*

As Max hit the ground with his axe, a loud hissing sound could be heard. A few moments later, a breath of fire came in his direction, scorching his left hand and arm.

- URGH!

- "Heal fire burns" - Lillian soon casted the magic with the lollipop in her hands. Since she used a common item as a medium for her spell, however, it's potency was smaller than it should have been - and some burns remained on Max's arms.

At the same time, an arrow came from behind, as Raphael locked into the Chimaera behind the fire-breathing serpent.

The four-headed lion, then, pounced at Max, this time for real.

However, it didn't have the chance to hit him. Behind it's mane, the lion was surprised to feel the weight of a humanoid.

Yrwin then finished him without a second thought.

- Hahah! Now that's a fight! - Max rejoiced, as he cut the serpents' head off, at the same time blocking the chimaeras' advance with the same swing used to behead the enemy.

However, with its two friends defeated, the Chimaera also didn't live long.